I Can't Breath (With or Without You)
by Joy Booth
Summary: Ward and Skye have a week off, can their relationship survive outside the adrenaline fueled non stop intense environment of the BUS ?
1. Chapter 1

Skye and Ward had ignored a lot in the beginning.

At first it was nothing, just a look that lingered a moment too long, or sitting just a little too close on the couch. But before long it was an arm around her shoulder, a hand on the small of her back, her gentle kiss goodnight on his cheek, his on her forehead. They were close. They were friends. They were part of a team that did not allow fraternization between members. So they ignore things.

She didn't comment when he rubbed the aches from her shoulders after a tough training session. He didn't seem surprised when she brought him a cup of coffee (just the way he liked it) while he is working on paperwork. It was a comfortable companionship, and if either woke in the night calling the other's name, who would know.

They didn't date other people because who has the time when you go to sleep in London and wake up in Peru. They played board games together because they are bored and neither really got to as children. More and more, they are rationalizing their interactions. Until the day that the line was blown to hell.

* * *

It was a night like any other. They had returned from a routine mission, shared a drink, played a game of slap jack, and were saying goodnight when it happened. He always walked her to her bunk at night. Not because he liked to make sure she got tucked in, but because their bunks where side by side. At least that's what they told themselves.

"Next time I pick the game, Robot, you're reflexes are an unfair advantage."

"You say unfair, I say strategy, but just so you don't pout, you can pick tomorrow," he smiled, brushing thumb over her pouting lips.

Skye felt a shock from the contact, but she ignored it, she was good at ignoring it.

"Well, I better hit the rack..." she smiled excitedly, "see, already getting the lingo."

"Yeah, you are a real buckle polisher, aren't you Rook?" he chuckled.

"Only for you," she joked, leaning up to give him her usual goodnight kiss. But instead of his cheek, her kiss landed softly on his neck.

When she had leaned in, he had automatically wrapped his arms around her, but when Ward felt her lips on his neck, his pulse quickened and he put all his considerable will power into waiting for her to pull away. She always pulled away, that was the deal. They never got too close.

_One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi,_

Another kiss closer to his ear.

_Four Mississippi, five Mississippi..._

Warm breath rushing down his back as she nuzzled his neck.

"Sweet dreams, Grant..." she whispered.

And in that moment she broke him, just like she had the first day in interrogation. There was nothing left to do but take the next step into her bunk, pull the screen closed and kiss her senseless.

* * *

The next morning Skye woke up and checked the time, 7am. Damn, her body was starting to get used to the early morning work outs Ward usually required of her. She smiled at the thought of Ward, and looked around, but the room was empty. If it weren't for the fact that she had woken up naked, she would have thought that she imagined the whole night.

Knowing that any minute someone could come knocking, this was a Bus full of early risers, motivated her to get moving.

"Having a bit of a lay-in today, Skye?" Jemma asked when Skye made it to the kitchenette.

Skye rolled her eyes and turned to the coffee maker. SHIELD agents were the only people she knew who thought having breakfast at 7:30 am was sleeping in. She had just sat down at the table, when Ward came in obviously fresh from a work out. Well, maybe fresh wasn't the right word, as he was covered in sweat.

"Glad to see that you are giving our fair Skye a break from training, finally." Fitz commented, before munching a toast point.

"She put in some good work yesterday, she earned it." Ward replied smoothly. He turned to Skye and gave her a wink, which caused her to choke on her Cocoa Puffs. When she finally stopped coughing, Ward had gone, but she wasn't worried. That wink had told her that whatever this thing was between them, it was private, and it wasn't going to stop.

And it didn't. Months went by, with Ward walking her to bed and /tucking her in/, and if anybody noticed a change, they didn't comment on it. After all, as long as it didn't affect the work, why should they care?

Everything was perfect until they got a week off.


	2. Chapter 2

It was the first time that the team had more than a day off since they had all boarded the Bus for Peru. Skye was excited. She was thinking of all the fun things that she and Ward would get to do. They could sleep in late, maybe go to a concert or at least a club. They could go on a date!

* * *

Grant was nervous. He had fallen in love with Skye, but he was unsure how their relationship would work outside of the closed environment of the Bus. They had discussed plans when they found out about the upcoming vacation days, but actually taking Skye to his apartment was a whole other story. In the past, he had always spent time at his girlfriend place. Unfortunately, his current girlfriend had gone from living in a van, to living on the bus, so that was not an option, even though Skye loved to tease him about it.

"Come on, Grant," she teased, laying naked on his chest after a nice tucking in, "You know you want to help me break in the van."

"Absolutely not," he insisted. "I would probably end up breaking your precious equipment."

"Well, fine then," She pouted.

"We could get a hotel," he offered.

"Why would we do that if you have an apartment?"

"It's just that… my apartment isn't exactly what you think of as _homey_," he explained.

"I'm shocked," she replied sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means everyone else has things in their bunk, Coulson has his old stuff, and Jemma has her tea set and Fitz has his movie collection, and I don't know what May has because she keeps her bunk closed, but you, you have clothes and essentials. Nothing that says anything about who you are," she explained.

Ward didn't say anything, he didn't know how to respond. He had been trained to live a minimalist life style. Take only what you need. The things that the rest of the team clung to for comfort, well he just didn't have anything like that.

"It's not a bad thing," Skye said, trying to reassure him. "I didn't have much growing up. I had a few changes of clothes, a tooth brush and a hair brush. I didn't come to the orphanage with anything, and the nuns could only provide essentials."

Ward looked around her bunk, a hula girl, three laptops, clothes coming out of the dresser, and shoes sticking out from under the bed. It was lived in, but there was an order to it. Everything she owned could be packed up in a matter of minutes. Maybe things would be okay, they weren't that different really, just saw the world differently.

* * *

They left together, but so did Fitz and Simmons, so no one commented. The first night went well. They stopped by the store on the way, to get essentials, pop tarts and ramen for Skye, power bars and bananas for Grant. They arrived at his place. It was sparse, but suitable. Skye ordered a pizza, while Grant started some laundry. It was nice, domestic.

* * *

That night they took full advantage of the privacy and space, being at his apartment afforded.

"See, isn't this nicer than your van?" he teased, as their sweat cooled after an enthusiastic bout of love making.

"You don't have free wi-fi," she said wistfully.

"We're only going to be here a week," he whined, not wanting set up yet another useless utility.

"Its fine, Grant. I'm teasing. I'm a hacker. Free Wi-fi is everywhere if you know the right code."

"You're not stealing it, are you?" he asked in horror.

She laughed, "Can you really steal something that should be free?"

"Yes, yes you can and I would get in trouble, because this is my place," he sat up exasperated.

"You are too easy to crank up," she laughed harder, "I didn't steal it. I have a roaming account. I just set up my receiver, and I am pretty sure I could hack from Antarctica."

"You, Skye, are mean," he sighed in relief, turning run his hands up her body, tickling her ribs, and extracting uncontrollable giggles.

"Stop, stop please, I will be nice, I promise," she gasped out between peels of laughter.

"You better," he whispered, before kissing her senseless again.


	3. Chapter 3

Skye woke to the sound of someone pounding into a heavy bag. She checked the time on her phone, it was quarter past too damn early for this sh*t. She put in her earbuds, turned on the music and drowned out the sounds of her boyfriend's early morning work-out.

* * *

After several more hours in the land of nod, she was pulled to consciousness again by the sound of her boyfriend.

"Skye, come on you aren't going to sleep all day, are you?" Grant gave her shoulder a shake.

"Time?" she mumbled squeezing her eyes shut.

"It's already nine thirty."

"Wake me up at noon," She replied rolling over and cuddling into his pillow.

"I thought we had plans," he asked.

"Night plans," she moaned, "date, movie, dinner, club, night things,"

"Fine," he replied flatly, getting up to leave the room.

Thirty seconds later, when she stumbled out of the bedroom in his t-shirt and her panties, he was showered, dressed, and heading out the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked stumbling toward the kitchen.

"I figured if you were going to sleep, I should get some things done," he replied.

"What things?" she asked grabbing an iced coffee from the fridge.

"Are you staying up?"

"When I leave the bed, I'm up, now that you have interrupted my beauty sleep, you're leaving?" she pretended to pout.

Grant slipped his coat off. "You still look beautiful," he smiled moving to kiss her good morning, which lead to them ending up back in bed an hour later.

* * *

"Where were you going?" Skye asked. She was tucked into his side, enjoying the heat his body radiated.

"Just running errands," he replied vaguely.

"Well, do you want me to go with you?" she asked.

"I was thinking we could go to the museum."

"…okay"

"It's not all super old paintings, will you just trust me?" Grant sighed at her reluctance. He a morning person. He wanted to get up in the morning and get his day started, even though being in bed at almost noon today, didn't bother him. He wasn't the type to go clubbing, unless the mission called for that. So he had planned an outing that was more suited to him.

"Alright, fine, just let me get dressed," she grumbled, crossing the room to the duffle bag of her belongings.

"You know, there is space in the closet and an empty drawer, you don't have to live out of that bag," he offered.

"We are only here for a week," she replied, disappearing into the bathroom.

* * *

"How much longer are you going to be up?" Grant asked it was nearly midnight and he was ready for bed, but he couldn't sleep with the electronic glow and constant sound of keystrokes coming from the other side of the bed.

"Am I keeping you up?" she asked, looking over at him for the first time in an hour.

"A little bit, yeah,"

"Sorry, I'm going to go grab some of that left over Thai from the fridge and finish this real quick," she pressed a kiss to his lips before leaving the room, only to pop back in again. "You were right, that museum was pretty cool, by the way."

Grant smiled happily, before rolling over and trying to get some sleep.

* * *

He woke several hours later and was surprised to still be alone in bed.

"Skye?" he called, but there was no answer. He got up and went into the living room but she was nowhere to be seen. He walked all around the apartment looking for her, only to find her sitting on the floor of his closet, laptop on her lap, head leaned against the wall, sound asleep. He went to take her laptop and put it away, but this woke her.

"Gaaa, what time is it?"

"Close to three I imagine, why are you sleeping in my closet?"

"The living room is too big, I can't feel it moving," she mumbled, taking his hand to go back to his room.

"It's not moving," he replied.

"Exactly," she said putting her computer on the nightstand and snoring within seconds of her head hitting the pillow.

Grant shook his head, he knew there would be some kinks in the road, but Skye never ceased to surprise him.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, went much the same as the first. Grant was up early. Skye covered her head with a pillow and went back to sleep, but this time he had a plan. When he came in at nine to try to wake her, he brought a fresh hot caramel latte from the Starbucks down the street.

"Skye, wakey, wakey,"

"Time?"

"0900,"

"Do I smell coffee?" she asked from under the pillow.

"Maybe?" he smiled, knowing his plan had worked.

She pulled the pillow back and peaked out at him, "You went to Starbucks for me?" she grinned.

"There may even be a scone in the kitchen," he offered. Her eyes lit up. She took the coffee, kissed his cheek, thanked him and ran to the kitchen.

She was sitting on the kitchen counter, munching the scone, when he found her.

"Did you eat?" she asked.

"Yeah, at 0700," he replied.

"Do you want a bite? It's really good," she offered.

"Maybe…" he hummed moving to between her legs, "I was think about something else though,"

"Well, surely I have no idea what you are talking about, sir," she used her southern accent, putting the scone down to fan herself.

He smiled wolfishly, before leaning in to kiss her intensely.

* * *

"My coffee's cold now," she complained, when they finally separated a long while later.

"You drink iced coffee all the time," he returned.

"Yeah, but it was sweet of you to go get me a coffee, and then I don't even get to enjoy it. Do we have plans again?" she asked curiously.

"I thought we could go for a walk, and later maybe a nice dinner, fancy dress, tie, that whole thing," he offered with feigned nonchalance. He was actually nervous about their first _real_ date.

"I don't know that you could pull off a dress," she teased.

"That walk just turned into a 3 mile jog," he razzed.

"Do robots have a jog setting?" she joked.

"Ok, five mile run it is," he countered.

"I can think of something else we could do to stretch our muscles," she batted her eyes seductively.

He raised a questioning eyebrow to her.

"Yoga! I used to take a pick up class not far from here," she said excitedly.

He looked momentarily surprised.

"Why? What did you think I was imply, sir? Surely, you didn't think I was implying anything of a lascivious nature?" she teased, drawing out the word lascivious in such a way that Grant almost shivered with excitement.

"You madam, are a tease, and I will not have it," he threw her over his shoulder carting her back to bed, while she giggled all the way. They did go for a run that afternoon, though.

**A/N: Short chapter, but i am working on the next part, it is a little hard to write, especially because I am in a bad mood after that thing with ward and may yesterday, gaa, love may but everyone knows that Coulson is in love with her, gaaa that is all.**


End file.
